Doubted
by MeridianGrimm
Summary: Six months after graduating, Chris gets a letter from one of his kouhai.
1. Doubted

Thanks to Oort on AO3 for coming up with this scenario with me :D

I wrote this months ago with no intention of actually posting it, but then I found it in my fic folder again and laughed so hard rereading it that I reconsidered.

* * *

Chris shuts the door to his apartment behind him and drops his warmup jacket into its spot on the coat-rack. He's sorting the mail as he toes off his shoes and steps into the kitchen. Bills, advertisements, letters from fans… there's an issue of one of the three baseball magazines he subscribes to. And at the bottom is a handwritten letter with a return address in Japan. Chris pauses. He knows that address.

Why is _Miyuki_ sending him a letter?

They talk occasionally via text and Chris has been diligent in keeping up with Miyuki's progress – as he does with many of the current Seidou players. He can't think of a reason that he would receive a card from Miyuki, who generally presents himself as unsentimental. Curious, Chris sets the rest of the mail on the counter and carefully tears open the envelope. The front of the card has a generic picture of Tokyo on it. He opens the card to find seven words:

 _I'm sorry I doubted you._

 _-Miyuki Kazuya_

Chris, who is not easily moved to laughter, spends a few moments with his shoulders shaking in mirth at whatever event prompted his kouhai's apology. He'd feel sorry for Miyuki, but, well, he had probably brought it on himself.

Chris thinks back to the conversation Miyuki's referencing, from a little over six months ago. It was just before graduation and the retired third years were visiting the team, having finished with their tests. Chris' entrance had, of course, caused Sawamura to wave wildly and greet him with an enthusiastic "WELCOME BACK, CHRIS-SENPAI, I WOULD BE HONORED TO FORM A BATTERY WITH YOU ONCE MORE BEFORE YOU GRADUATE AND LEAVE ME, THIS UNWORTHY KOUHAI, BEHIND."

Chris had bitten back a smile, remembering all the times after they'd first met when he'd thought that things would be easier if Sawamura had liked him a little. Lesson learned: be careful what you wish for.

While Sawamura was getting yelled at by his teammates for disturbing practice, Miyuki stood off to the side and took a gulp from his water bottle. "Still can't get him to call _me_ senpai," Miyuki muttered, probably not intending for Chris to hear it. "I'm not a role model for good behavior, sure, but that doesn't mean he has to think I'm _evil_."

Chris had looked over and felt his lips curl up in a smile. "Enjoy it while you can."

"Hn, I'm not sure about that," Miyuki had replied, unconvinced.

But now, it seems, Miyuki had done something that has led Sawamura to shower him with the same amount of overenthusiastic attention that he regularly gives Chris, and Chris has been proven right. He looks down at the card again, written in Miyuki's graceful script, and then eyes the blank space on the living room wall next to his bookshelf where he's been meaning to hang a painting or artistic photo.

"The first time Miyuki admitted in writing that he was wrong" is probably something worth displaying.


	2. Call Out

The first thing Chris hears when he rolls over to answer his phone at 6am is "You _framed_ it?"

Chris smiles, knowing where this conversation is going. "Good morning, Miyuki." He calculates the time difference and figures that it's about 11pm in Tokyo, but here in the U.S. the sun is just rising.

"I just read the interviews that they conducted at your house and you _pointed it out to them?_ Are you kidding me?"

"It wasn't so much pointing out as it was sitting beneath the frame when they set up," Chris says, which isn't really a defense. It's more of an admission, really.

"You prick," Miyuki replies, but there's a hint of laughter in his tone that suggests he's split between genuine outrage and reluctant amusement. "Everyone thinks you're such an upstanding individual, but you're just more subtle about being rude."

"Oh, should I have thanked you for the letter? That _was_ an oversight – my apologies." Chris kicks off the sheets and stands up, stretching.

"Could you take it down the next time you do interviews? I'm gonna get calls asking about the story behind the card, since you elected to let the reporters draw their own conclusions rather than wave it off as a joke."

"It's quite the conversation starter. And how _is_ catching for Sawamura, by the way? Are you two getting along well? What was the final count today for the number of times he asked you to pitch outside of practice?"

"Well, I don't have it as bad as you did when you were here." Miyuki sounds like he's about to continue, but there's another voice in the background that slurs drowsily: "Who're you talkin' to, Kazuya?"

Chris almost drops the phone.

" _Shut up, Eijun_ ," Miyuki hisses, but the damage has been done.

"Oh, what was _that_ , Miyuki? Do tell."

"I…"

"I believe you were about to deny how much a certain pitcher of our mutual acquaintance has overtaken your life," Chris prompts.

He hears bedsprings creak. "CHRIS-SENPAI?! GREETINGS! HOW ARE YOU? I CAN PITCH AN ENTIRE GAME NOW AND NOT BE TIRED!"

"Oh, um. Good for you, Sawamura."

At his version of a whisper, Eijun exclaims "He said I was good, Kazuya, he said I was good! Did you hear him?"

"Yes, yes, you're good, shut up."

"AHA! You just said I was good too!"

"Eijun, this was a private conversation."

A muffled sigh comes over the phone's speakers. "Oh, okay. Come back to bed when you're done." Then, much louder: "GOODNIGHT CHRIS-SENPAI, I SHALL TALK TO YOU SOON!"

"Goodnight, Sawamura." Chris hears a door open and close and then there's a long pause hanging between the two catchers. "So… I have something new to tell the reporters, huh?" He'd never do it, of course, but he's not above a little teasing where Miyuki's concerned.

"I will save up to fly Eijun out to visit you alone for a _month_ if you so much as breathe a word about it," Miyuki threatens. "See if you're laughing then, Chris-senpai."

"Oh god, anything but that."

* * *

Fyi, Miyuki was reading the evening news on his phone in bed, which is why he was with Sawamura (in Miyuki's room? In Sawamura's room? Who knows?) when he called Chris.

Hit me up on my tumblr (meridiangrimm) if you want to talk about gay baseball players.


End file.
